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A loner is a person described as not seeking out, actively avoiding, or failing to maintain interpersonal relationships.
There are many potential causes for this solitude. Intentional causes include introversion, mysticism, spirituality, religion, or personal considerations. Unintentional causes involve high sensitivity or shyness. Multiple reported types of loners exist, and individuals meeting the criteria for being called loners often practice social interactions with other individuals while displaying a variable degree of introversion leading them to seek out periodic solitude.
However, the term is sometimes depicted culturally as positive, and indicative of a degree of independence and responsibility.Enriching The Sociological Imagination, p 124 Rhonda F. Levine - 2004 Someone who is a recluse or romantically solitary can be referred to by the terms singleton and nonwedder.Downing, Justin. Workplace Romance, Organizational Policy, and Employee Rights: A Qualitative Case Study. Diss. Northcentral University, 2016.DarlingTon, Tania. "Josei drama and Japanese television’s ‘new woman’." The Journal of Popular Television 1.1 (2013): 25-37. According to Elizabeth Follmer, the term is often used to describe a perceived Misanthropy, leading perceived loners to being viewed as outcast or misfit.Follmer, Elizabeth H., et al. "Resolution, relief, and resignation: A qualitative study of responses to misfit at work." Academy of Management Journal (2017): amj-2014.
The term is often associated with introversion, due to perceived loners having innate personality traits and life experiences. In psychiatry, individuals being loners is sometimes associated to different Mental disorder. Some individuals described as loners have alexithymia, characterized by the inability to identify and describe emotions.Taylor, Graeme J. "Alexithymia: concept, measurement, and implications for treatment." The American Journal of Psychiatry (1984). Other disorders and illnesses associated with the term include social anxiety disorder, borderline personality disorder, avoidant personality disorder, depression, Autism spectrum, and schizoid personality disorder.
The characteristics associated with the term are often attributed to non-human animals such as leopard, whose behaviour is usually defined by voluntary solitude.Hayward, M. W., et al. "Prey preferences of the leopard (Panthera pardus)." Journal of Zoology 270.2 (2006): 298-313.
When expressing the desire to solitude, individuals described as loners may not reject human contact entirely. A person who avoids social interaction with colleagues beyond what is required for work or school responsibilities, mainly for practical reasons such as avoiding the complication of non-personal life, is often found to be highly charismatic during social gatherings with people outside of work or schoolor vice versa.
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